Rory Gilmore and the Twelve Parsecs
by LawrenceDaddarioWatsonStewart
Summary: What if the Wookie was the father? Read to find out!
1. Chapter 1: Town Hall Shitshow

**Chapter 1: Town Hall Shitshow**

Family meetings were supposed to be sprawling and chaotic. And the Stars Hollow weekly town meeting was certainly both of those things. People came rushing in at the last possible moment, while others shouted to make themselves heard. Still others flagrantly violated the rules, as Rory Gilmore and her mother and stepfather did while bringing in food and beverages from Luke's Diner. Taylor Dosse, the grocer and town selectman, brought the meeting to order.

"Now, first order of business:" the Santa-Claus-look-alike began. "It has come to my attention that the _Stars Hollow Gazette_ editor Rory Gilmore is with child."

"Ooh!" Babette squealed. "No wonder she came back!"

Rory's mouth fell open. She had no idea how Taylor came about this information. The only people she had told were her mother and Luke. Perhaps Ms. Patty had overheard her telling Lorelai the day of the wedding? Instead, all she could think to say was, "I'm not back!" which she had futilely been reminding people of since... well, the summer, but still.

Meanwhile, the entire town had descended into a hubbub over their pride and joy expecting a baby. Luke Danes was the only one silent, and it was because he was fuming. Upon first hearing the news that he was going to be a grandfather, he had promised to let Rory tell the rest of the town in her own way, and when she was ready. Unfortunately, Miss Patty's unofficial gossip column had no timetable.

"Now," Taylor was trying to restore order. "Let this be a lesson to all our impressionable young girls of why birth control is needed. To be pregnant and unwed is a state of affairs that all citizens of good moral standing should frown upon. Our town now has two prime examples of sexual promiscuity gone astray. And while the Gilmores are part of town legend and their story is inspirational, we cannot ignore the fact -"

"YOU TAKE BACK THAT STATEMENT IMMEDIATELY!" Luke bellowed. He leapt out of his seat and looked like he was going to rush the stage and attack Taylor; it took the combined efforts of Bootsy, Andrew, Jess and the Town Troubadour to hold him back.

"Lucas, you are talking out of turn. Therefore, your comment must be stricken from the record..." Taylor tried to calm the diner owner.

"TO HELL WITH THE RECORD! THAT'S MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, TAYLOR! WHY DON'T YOU JUST SAY IT? WE ALL KNOW YOU WANT TO! AND I HEAR BEING POLITICALLY INCORRECT IS IN STYLE THESE DAYS! JUST BE READY TO HAVE YOUR FACE BASHED IN!"

Lorelai gawked at her husband. In the nearly twenty years she had known him, nine of which they had lived together and a few weeks of marriage, she had never seen Luke become this enraged. Not at her, not at anyone. She now got between the crowd of men holding Luke down and now guided him to the back of the barn that doubled as Miss Patty's dance studio. "Let's go home, honey..."

Rory, looking stricken, rushed after them, not caring if Taylor noticed the _Luke's Diner_ bags she carried filled with foodstuff contraband.

* * *

That night, at Number 37 Maple Street, Luke had still not calmed down as he ranted to Lorelai in the kitchen. Rory listened from her place on the stairs, one hand over her baby bump that was not yet perceptible, but would be all too soon.

"I let him say that about my family! _My family_!" Luke thundered with rage. "All but calling my wife and daughter a couple of... of..." Luke couldn't even bring himself to say the cursed slur. "I will not stand for that kind of... elitist slander! Not about my family! I tell you, I will not tolerate it!"

Lorelai threw her arms around him and kissed him. "I love you, Luke Danes," she smiled when they broke apart. She hugged him close. "My big, strong diner man, defending his family."

Luke tightened his grip around her, and were Rory in this hug, he would do the same to her. " _Mine..._ " he growled low, protectively, possessively, making Lorelai shiver.


	2. Chapter 2: Rory Gilmore Can't Watch Star

**Chapter 2: Rory Gilmore Can't Watch Star Wars**

It was a few years later, on a quiet Friday night at Number 37, Maple Street. The blended Gilmore-Danes family of Luke, Lorelai, Rory and Rory's three-year-old daughter, Laurie, sat on the couch watching an airing of Star Wars on TV. Rory, the young mother and author, couldn't remember which episode it was. All she knew was that the scene was taking place in the Millennium Falcon.

"Let the Wookie win," C-3PO was saying, as Chewbacca gave a growly howl.

All at once, Rory felt her palms getting sweaty. Her breathing became shallow. "Excuse me," she squeaked, and ran upstairs to the bathroom in horror. It was as if she was watching Pennywise the clown from IT instead of an innocent Wookie. After dry-heaving over the toilet for a few minutes, Rory stayed inside to compose herself before going back downstairs.

Just then, Lorelai came into the bathroom, carrying Laurie in her arms. "Bath time," she announced, even as she gave her daughter a hard look.

Rory sighed. She knew her mother had figured it out. No matter how many times she had desperately tried to convince Lorelai that Laurie was Logan's, that the little girl resembled the blonde publishing heir, she could never make an airtight case. Add the fact that Rory could no longer sit through seeing Chewbacca on the TV screen without having a fit, and little was left to the imagination about who the father _really_ was. One-night stands could have the harshest consequences.

A Wookie. Well, a guy in a Wookie costume. A source for an article up in New York. Rory had impulsively slept with him. When she had first done the DNA tests upon learning she was pregnant, the source had come back as unknown. Logan Huntzberger would have been in the DNA banks on account of that boat he had stolen with Rory when they were young. Also, the timeline did not match up with when Rory had slept with Logan in New Hampshire.

Now, Rory tenderly washed and scrubbed the result of that frantic union. Lorelai watched from where she sat on the cool tiles.

"Mommy?" Laurie asked.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Is my Daddy really a Wookie?"

Rory froze. This was not in the conversational flowchart. At all. How could she even respond to a question like this? She slowly turned back to her own mother. "Mom..."

"Wasn't me," Lorelai denied.

"Oh, so it was Luke?" Rory sarcastically asked, even if she knew that was even more implausible.

"It wasn't me!" Lorelai insisted. She had to be lying, Rory knew it. All the same, she turned back to Laurie and said gently, "No, sweetie, Daddy is not a Wookie."

Laurie's face scrunched up and she began to cry, her tears mixing in with the bubbles and bathwater. "Sssh... honey, it's OK..." Rory tried to soothe her daughter.

Luke suddenly burst in. "What's wrong? What happened?" He could almost be too hands-on when it came to grand parenting. "The water's too hot, isn't it? No... Laurie's stomach is hurt? She ate dinner too fast? Did the movie scare her?"

"No, no and NO!" Rory snapped in frustration.

"Then why is she crying?" Luke demanded.

"I WANNA BE A WOOKIE!" Laurie wailed.

Luke froze, but only for a moment. "Don't worry, Laurie. Granddady will buy you a Wookie costume for Halloween."

"Luke..." Rory snarled. The more times the word Wookie was brought up in conversation, the more her patience wore thin.

Luke held up his hands in surrender. "Ok, Ok! I'll go get her bed ready..." He all but ran from the room.

Laurie finished her bath and Rory scooped her up into a towel and carried her away into the little girl's room. It had once been Lorelai's room, before she was married, but the Gilmore matriarch and Luke now shared a bed further down the hall. Rory's room, still from her childhood, was downstairs just off the kitchen.

Popping a CD into Laurie's player, Rory watched her little girl fall asleep as the tune wafted around her: _"How in the midst of all this sorrow / Can so much hope and love endure? I was innocent and certain / Now I'm wiser, but unsure..."_

Rory slipped out of the darkened room and closed the door behind her. Getting downstairs, she saw Lorelai at the kitchen counter. Luke was at the table, going over bills, pretending that he wasn't listening in on whatever conversation was going to come up.

"Are you going to keep up that lie her whole life?" Lorelai demanded of Rory. "Don't you think Rory has a right to know who her father is?"

"Of course she does!" Rory snapped. "And I would tell her if I even knew who her father is!"

"All you know is that he was dressed in a Wookie costume?" Lorelai raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Rory, think! You're a journalist! Best-selling author now too! What else can you remember about him?"

"All I know is that his first name is Gus," Rory sighed. "He wouldn't give me his last name when I interviewed him for my piece."

"So, we look across Facebook and Twitter for anyone named Gus, and see if you recognize the profiles," Luke offered up without even raising his head from his bills. "If you can't recognize the guy by name, maybe you can recognize him by sight."

Rory sighed as she flopped down in the chair across from her stepfather. "I could, if he had taken his mask off, when..." She blushed.

Luke stared at her. "He kept the damn costume on during..." He too now flushed. "That had to have been hot as hell! And hard to maneuver!"

"Not the costume, just the mask!" Rory corrected. "I think."

Luke stared at her hard. "You think or you know?"

"I don't remember! It was dark in his hotel room; I couldn't really see his face, no matter if the mask was on or off!" Rory buried her face in her hands. "Maybe this mystery... isn't meant to be solved."

"And you would be OK with that?" Lorelai stared. "Some stranger going through life without even knowing he had a kid?"

"Even if I could find him, I don't know if he would remember me, or even believe me!" Rory began to cry. Her life had so gone off track of what she had planned for it. And it was largely her fault!

Luke sighed. If Rory didn't have enough information to at least try to make a go of solving this mystery, then... "Maybe she's right. Maybe it isn't meant to be solved."

And the family dissolved into silence on that cold fall evening.


End file.
